The Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a “new normal” — a world in which very little exists as we knew it just a year and a half ago. Experts warn us that the pandemic is far from over, and its impact on health, economies and societies around the world is yet to be evaluated.

Empty classrooms bear witness to the loss of education to an entire generation of children. Yes, children incarcerated at home are learning. But only a privileged few, those with parents who have the time and means to support, supervise and supplement remote teaching.

The digital divide has never been starker, the losses are incalculable, and the global community’s roadmap for humanity — Agenda 2020 and its Sustainable Development Goals — may have been set back by decades.

Yet, the “new normal” lends itself to a ‘new future’. Co¬vid19 has forced us to think differently, to improvise, to break our entrenched patterns of thought and to do things differently, often with unexpected benefits. One such innovation — in fact I will use the word “transformation” — is the Home based Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme implemented by the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal, through its 1.17 lakh anganwadi centres.

The ECCE is not simply about teaching preschool children the 3R’s. It is a specialised playbased methodology through which children acquire emotional, cognitive, physical and social skills that ready them for entering primary school, and is considered to be a foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing. According to Unesco, for disadvantaged children, the ECCE plays an important role in compensating for the disadvantages in the family and combating educational inequalities.

In pre-pandemic times, the state’s anganwadi centres would be abuzz with activity, with children under the age of 6 and pregnant and lactating mothers receiving nutrition and other services in a safe space in the heart of communities.

Like schools, anganwadi centres in Bengal have been closed since March 2020 for the safety of children. Since then, an army of anganwadi workers has provided doorstep delivery of a food basket of dry food rations to 73 lakh children and 15 lakh pregnant and lactating mothers, monthly, to compensate for the hot cooked meals they received daily at the centre. The numbers of the beneficiaries indicate the magnitude of the effort and coordination put into the exercise.

The real challenge, however, was delivering the department’s ECCE curriculum, normally taught to groups of children between three and six years at the centres by trained anganwadi workers. Several questions arose while considering continuity of ECCE services to children locked in at home. For one, although ECCE training materials are simple everyday objects, the training methodology is highly interactive. And second, how does one transmit this material to the families of over 35 lakh children, when many of these families don’t have basic mobile phones, let alone smart phones or other electronic appliances?

Despite these barriers, on May, 11, 2020, just a few weeks into the lockdown, the department transformed its ECCE curriculum into a fullfledged home-based ECCE initiative and has been successfully delivering this to its beneficiaries. Weekly theme-based audio modules containing rhymes, stories, and activity calendars are provided to parents on their mobile phones (not necessarily smart phones), with instructions of how to use these materials with their chil¬dren.

With positive parenting messages embedded in each activity, the programme has turned the challenge of lockdown into an opportunity. Not only parents, but all caregivers, including grandparents and older siblings, have involved themselves in the play-based activities, with the smaller children benefiting from the diverse bonding.

The modules are available in the vernaculars, that is, Bengali and Hindi. All instructions are voice-based, ensuring that even parents/caregivers who are not literate can use it. The teaching/learning materials used are readily available in households — such as pots and pans from kitchens and twigs, stones and leaves from outdoors, with only 2030 minutes of a caregiver’s involvement each day. Till date, approximately 27.8 lakh children have received the homebased ECCE package, with the department increasing its coverage every month.

Heartwarming stories abound about how neighbours, friends and employers have pitched in to ensure that all children receive their weekly inputs if their parents are technologically challenged. Community radio and cable TV have been commandeered in several areas to broadcast the weekly learning sessions. It truly does take a village to raise a child, and the silver lining in this pandemic cloud is perhaps the return to a time when learning was not bounded by physical walls and the written word, but the result of an organic exploration of life, relationships and the environment. This is as true for early childhood learning as it is for school and college education.

Yes, children will return to the anganwadis one day, and they should, because homebased learning cannot provide that one critical ingredient, peer interaction that develops social and emotional skills. However, given the tremendous response of families and children, the new methods of communication between anganwadi workers and families will continue even when Anganwadi centres open, as will the content and method of teaching.

To quote Amartya Sen, “Imparting education not only enlightens the receiver, but also broadens the giver — the teachers, the parents, the friends”. Anganwadi workers, the true heroes in this story, will remain a crucial link in the transmission of learning between parents, children and communities.